Tried Japan without early IC's - only transports

Either way Japan is played, Russia prepares. This puts maximum pressure on both fronts. At the end of turn 4/5, Allied Asia is nearly all in Japanese hands. How can you do better? An infantry push into Russian Asia leaves US/UK IC’s intact to harrass your infantry columns. Plus you don’t have the NP from the US/UK Asian territories to expand past purchasing 8 infantry a turn. You don’t have an IC in place operating to fend off British forces from Africa. An infantry push further south will be horribly harrassed by all Allies, encircled, and stopped. Limited NP and transports alone won’t allow an effective north and south fronts to work at the same time. It will be too weak splitting half the infantry in 2 areas.
Anyway you play it’s 4 minimum turns to Moscow. I’d rather have the Allies out of the picture in Asia when I get there. I like the NP and the ability to deal with Africa if and when needed. You can also spare your fleet with a transport to go take those nice weakly defended Allied Pacific posessions when possible.
Maybe Major-Damage is right. We can agree to disagree. But I think IT IS fun to post about it. What is this forum for? What else can we do here? We can learn from each other, what’s the harm in that? We give our strategies away on the battlefield anyway, why all the secrecy here? I’ll apologize to all if our debates are endless and tedious. But I’ll still do them. Yanny - it’s been great posting with you. To all - what good is no communication???

Yes, I have Germany destroy it to give the German Med fleet a turn or 2 longer life to transport to Africa. I know it may seem like a waste of an aircraft or 2 in turn 1, but if it survives the UK bomber and this sub can attack the German Southern Europe Fleet in turn 1. The UK player may lose both units, but further German transporting to Africa will at least be ended. I agree that it would be bad for Japan if that sub escaped to the Indian Ocean…

Sorry, should have clarified. I attack the sub with aircraft only. It’s so frustrating to miss, although that doesn’t happen too often.
As for the Egypt attack, I used to do it all the time to knock down UK forces. As you know this battle can go bad for the Germans at least half the time. Even if you win, your forces are weaker and spread thinner. This gives the UK a better chance of a successful counter-attack in turn 1.
I’ve found the initial German forces in Libya can move to down to Central Africa and then transport 2 infantry to Libya from SE. This gives the Germans a larger force in Africa to take Egypt (and the fleet the chance to take Syria) in turn 2 and gives the UK player in turn 1 some hard choices. A good UK move is to move Egyptian forces (at least one) to Syria. This secures the territory and allows landing their aircraft after attacking the German fleet in turn 2. Without Syria, the German fleet lasts at least 2 more turns. Bad for the British. I try to scare the UK player to make a stand in Egypt in turn 2 and leave Syria weak or undefended. Germany keeping the Med with their fleet helps this scare (although Germany knows this is vital for a stronger attack in Africa/Syria in turn 2).
Anyway this usually gives Germany a fair stand at least in Egypt for a few turns. It could also take and hold the continent for a short time. Either way it delays the Allies and lowers UK NP possibly long enough to win…

Initially the British can be in alot of trouble early on in Africa. I like having the British bail themselves out by a South African IC and transported troops from England. This rebuilds their NP quick and puts forces into Asia. This also frees up the US to put all energy into transporting to Europe. I know most of you may disagree with this strategy, but it seems to work fairly well if I don’t let up any pressure on the Axis…